One of the ever-nagging problems we Irish Dance dressmakers face is how to attach overlay to our base fabrics so that they do not shift or wrinkle during embroidery and sewing seams. I have used temporary basting sprays which I hate because of the smell and the resulting headache, even when I spray outside. I used regular Wonder-under on the bodice of my current dress…it works beautifully under the organza but it does make the fabric stiffer, not something everyone wants.

Somewhere, on some dressmaking board, someone put up a link to Misty Fuse. I decided to try it and found it on sale here.

So what do I think? Fantastic stuff! Anytime you “fuse” 2 fabrics there will be a change in the fabric drape, but the stiffness of this stuff is minimal. Here you can see how sheer it is.

Here is a sample with the chiffon overlay. The effect on the sheen of the satin underneath is almost non-existent…look near the bottom of the pic and you can see the sheen.

Then, for the hell of it, I tried it to attach some tulle to the satin. Only drawback to this stuff is that it does not come on it’s own paper backing. That would make life a bit easier since you have to work your way through layers of this soft filmy stuff to find a single layer and then you must use parchment paper if there is room for it to bleed through as there obviously is on tulle. I found that I needed a higher heat here because even though the tulle was firmly attached, I could clearly see the Misty Fuse mesh. Pressed it several times with the parchment with no change. Just to see if I could melt it, I put it directly under the press with no parchment…obviously made a mess on the heated part that I had to clean up, but it did melt it! Could be a problem…the higher heat, I mean. Can’t always use a high heat on all of our fabrics. But, you cannot see it through the chiffons at all. Notice the satin sheen through the tulle?

I just love it when you get excited over these things! It reminds me so much of me when I do something with knitting or crocheting. There are few people who understand me and my excitement over things … you are one of them!

I was just applying fuse to a ton of sheers today (large sections of fabric) and have a few tips to share with you that may be helpful with the fabrics that you asked about.

I had the iron on wool. Also tried both teflon pressing sheets and Reynold’s parchment. The parchment was much better for the sheers. I do love the teflon sheets for cottons, though.

I worked from the fuse side and ironed with quick and relatively light strokes from the center out. The paper become wrinkly as air tend to trap with sheers. While the paper was still hot I ripped it of the fabric and repositioned it to continue on another section of fabric (I was working on 20″x 30″ pieces of fabric, and approx 20″ length of Reynolds). By pulling up the paper while it’s still hot, the fuse stayed on the fabric. Doing it this way I had perfect coverage of fuse on the fabrics. I also found there was a slight advantage (faster easier rip) if the fuse did NOT stick beyond the fabric for this method and these fabrics. (Conversely, on cotton and using a hot iron, I like to allow the fabric to cool a bit first and then pull the cotton off the teflon or paper).